


post-it notes

by martiniblue



Category: ITZY (Band)
Genre: F/F, highschoolAU, yuna isn't in this fic sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-09-29 23:09:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20444114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martiniblue/pseuds/martiniblue
Summary: chaeryeong writes short messages of encouragement and slips them in ryujin's locker everyday... except locker number 413 isn't ryujin's.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i rarely write in present tense so i apologise in advance if there are any mistakes!

“It’s kind of cute,” Chaeryeong thinks, as the ending credits of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before rolls on her laptop screen, “Nobody writes letters anymore.” 

Maybe it’s because she’s always been a romantic, or maybe it’s because it’s 2am and she’s feeling spontaneous, but Chaeryeong pulls out a post-it note pad from inside her drawer and uncaps her pen. 

The ballpoint of her pen hovers over the pastel yellow paper and she pauses. What should she write? She cringed so hard and felt all the second-hand embarrassment when the male characters confronted Lara about her letters so there’s no way she’s going to sign off the note with her name. Chaeryeong doesn’t exactly _ love _ Ryujin either so she throws the idea of a _ love letter _ into a pit in the back of her mind. She chews on her knuckles and rolls the pen around between her index and middle fingers. 

_ Dear Ryujin, _she pens, but quickly scrunches the note and tosses it in the bin under her desk. 

“It’s probably too formal,” she voices aloud. 

_ Good luck for your basketball game this Friday! _

Nice and simple - A little too simple though, so Chaeryeong squiggles the face of a rabbit and a cat in the bottom right corner. She unconsciously adds a little heart and by the time she notices, she’s too lazy to redraw it all on another post-it note. Liquid tape doesn’t look too good on yellow either so she decides against it and folds the note neatly before tucking it in her skirt pocket - the uniform she’ll be wearing in about… 4 hours… _ darn it. _

  


\---

  


Chaeryeong almost forgets about the post-it note until it falls out of her pocket while she’s getting out of her sisters car. She hastily snatches it from her best friend (and also conveniently her neighbour who carpools with them to school), Yuri and puts it in her jacket pocket instead, zipping it up. Yuri sends her a perplexed look, which Chaeryeong responds with a tight-lipped smile and a subtle shake of her head. 

“Bye kids, learn something useful,” her sister, Chaeyeon, says with her usual motherly tone, before striding away with Sakura. 

It irks Chaeryeong to no end, and Chaeyeon knows it. They’re only a year apart in age but sometimes Chaeyeon treated her like she just learnt how to walk. 

“Will do, hag!” Chaeryeong calls out, to which Chaeyeon responds with an outstretched middle finger (which Sakura quickly retracts by holding her hand). 

“What’s that?” Yuri juts her chin out in the direction of Chaeryeong’s pockets. 

“Oh right.” She pulls the post-it note out of her pocket and unfolds it, showing it to Yuri. 

She never really felt embarrassed in front of Yuri. Her sister on the other hand, definitely wouldn’t let her live it down if she got wind of her harmless, little crush on Shin Ryujin. 

“For Ryujin?” Yuri asks, but the growing smile on her lips says she already knows the answer. 

Chaeryeong nods slowly, sucking in her lips to stop herself from smiling but Yuri can see it in the way her eyes shine. 

“Do you know what number her locker is?” 

“Aren’t you gonna give it to her in person?” Yuri connects the dots. 

“And get publicly rejected? No thank you.” 

“It’s just a good luck message,” Yuri persists, “You’re not professing your love or anything.” 

“Yet,” Yuri quietly adds. 

“I don’t love her!” Chaeryeong replies defensively, her gaze fixated on the floor (which doesn’t go unnoticed by Yuri but she decides to keep her mouth shut… for now). 

“I know someone who’ll know her locker number,” Yuri reassures her, just as the bell rings for roll call. 

  
  


\---

  
  


“It’s locker number 413,” Yuri relays to her in fourth period, the only time they shared a class. 

“Who told you?” Chaeryeong whispers behind her hand. 

“Yena,” Yuri tells her, “They’re both on the basketball team.” 

“Yena, huh?” Chaeryeong wiggles her eyebrows. 

Yuri lightly slaps her arm but fails to stop her lips from curving upwards. 

  


\---

  


Chaeryeong browses the corridor where the lockers are lined up against the walls on both sides, a bathroom pass in one hand and the post-it note in her other hand. She scans the numbers etched on the doors of the lockers, slowing her pace when she reaches 400. 

_ 409… 410… 411… 412.. 413. _

She looks around. The corridor is deserted. She reads over the note again to check that there are no spelling mistakes (God only knows how many times she’s done this) before sliding it through the vents. 

She quickly turns on her heel, heart thumping in her chest and walks with a slight bounce in her steps, back to class. 

“I did it,” she breathes out when she finds her seat next to Yuri. 

She quickly jots down whatever the teacher’s written on the board with this newfound surge of energy. Yuri shoots her a thumbs up and wiggles her eyebrows as payback but Chaeryeong’s too giddy to care.

  


\---

  


“Uh…” Yeji swaps out books from her locker and looks curiously at the post-it note that she doesn’t remember ever putting in there, “Did you write this?” 

“No,” Lia takes a closer look at what’s written and drawn on it, “Looks like I have competition.” 

“Is it a competition if you’ve already won?”

Lia clicks her tongue and wants to wipe the smug look off Yeji’s face. But her heart stutters, like the first time her eyes landed on Yeji. 

“So, are you the rabbit or the cat?” Lia distracts Yeji when she feels the heat creep to her cheeks. 

“None,” Yeji pouts, “I’m kangaroo.” 


	2. lara jean 2.0

It’s becoming harder for Yeji to ignore, especially when it’s putting a strain on her relationship with Lia… wait, not that kind of relationship. They’re not dating but they’re not just friends either. They’re floating somewhere in between - a zone no one wants to be in. It’s pretty obvious that their romantic feelings are mutual, especially when they blatantly flirt with each other, but they’re both too scared to make a proper move first. (But that’s not important, this is a Ryuryeong fic so MOVING ON). 

  
  


_Don’t forget to drink lots of water at practice! _

  
  


Yeji tosses the note in the bin for the twelfth or thirteenth time when she spots Lia in the crowd. She’s been receiving these short, sweet messages everyday with the same drawing of a rabbit and a cat. She notices how Lia goes quiet every time she unfolds them in front of her. As nice as it is to see these words of encouragement, she wishes the person would stop giving them to her. 

It’s the next day when Yeji receives another note but this time, she pauses before she throws it away. 

_I hope your ankle heals soon :(_

She shows it to Lia, who mirrors the confused expression on her face. 

“Your ankle?” Lia’s gaze falls to Yeji’s feet. 

“My ankles are fine.” 

“That’s weird,” Lia comments. She ponders for a moment. “Did someone on your team hurt their ankle?” 

Yeji’s face lights up and she clicks her fingers. “Ryujin!” 

“Do you think these notes were meant for Ryujin?” Lia wonders. 

“It would make more sense,” Yeji says as her eyes flick over to drawing on the note. 

“She’d be the cat,” she adds jokingly. 

“Is her locker next to yours or something?” 

“No, it’s 431.” 

“413… 431…” Lia’s voice trails off. “Could’ve easily been mixed up.” 

The tension in Yeji’s shoulders releases and a wave of relief washes over her at the possibility that this was all just a mix-up. 

“Question is, who’s the rabbit?”

  
  


\---

  
  


It’s the end of practice when Yeji takes out the post-it note from the front pocket of her bag and hands it to Ryujin. The girl can’t play with her twisted ankle but she continues to turn up to practice anyway to visually learn the plays they’ll use at their next game. 

“What’s this?” Ryujin chuckles as she reads it. “_I hope your ankle heals soon_? Why’d you write that down when you could’ve just told me?” 

Yeji snorts and hides her laughter behind her hand. “It’s not from me.” 

“Then who?” 

“I’ve been getting these in my locker for the past two weeks or something, but I think they’re meant for you,” Yeji explains. 

Yena’s ears perk up. 

“Wait, hold on,” she chimes in before Ryujin can respond, “What’s your locker number?” 

Ryujin raises her eyebrow before answering. “431, why?” 

“Fuck,” Yena breathes out, holding her head in her hands.

“Why?” Ryujin and Yeji prod simultaneously. 

Yena lets out a nervous giggle. 

“Nothing, I don’t know who it’s from,” Yena splutters. 

“But you know something,” Yeji narrows her eyes. 

“Okay, okay,” Yena raises her hands and protrudes her lips. 

“I think I told Yuri the wrong locker number,” she easily spills, “She said she needed it for a friend.” 

Yeji softens her expression, satisfied with how effortlessly she could get Yena to confess. 

“Thanks!” she smiles at Yena before turning to Ryujin, “Now you just need to ask Yuri.” 

“Okay but who’s Yuri?” Ryujin looks up at her cluelessly. 

  
  
  


\---

  
  
  


Yeji sighs heavily as she loiters around in the corridor. She decides to prop herself against the lockers and begins scrolling aimlessly through social media on her phone. A couple students she doesn’t know walk by so she pretends to be busy texting. Her eyes flick up occasionally so she doesn’t miss the person she’s looking for. 

“Oh hey Chaeryeong!” she calls out to the brunette, who’s just walked past her, “Have you seen Yuri?” 

“No, why?” 

“I just need to ask her something.” 

“She normally has English in Room 15 in sixth period,” Chaeryeong informs her, “But we go home together so she’s probably waiting in the parking lot now.” 

“Oh okay,” Yeji nods, “Thanks!” 

She turns and heads toward the car park before stopping abruptly. 

“Wait!” Yeji exclaims.

Chaeryeong looks back to see Yeji waving at her frantically, beckoning her over. 

“You’re Yuri’s friend,” she begins cautiously, “Have you been writing messages on post-it notes for Ryujin?” 

Chaeryeong’s face falls faster than an anchor and her bowels suddenly churn. 

“Wh-What?” she splutters. Part of her is screaming for her to turn around but she can’t. Her throat dries up and her legs are frozen in place. 

“So you have!” Yeji presses. 

“It’s not a bad thing,” Yeji calmly continues in a soft voice when she notices Chaeryeong’s nails digging into her palms, “You’ve just been putting them in the wrong locker. Her’s is 431.” 

“Then h-how does she- how do you- what?” Chaeryeong stumbles over her words. Her mind is spiralling out of control with imaginations of different scenarios. 

“My locker is 413,” Yeji explains, “I thought the notes were for me until today when you wrote about her ankle.” 

Chaeryeong’s eyes almost pop out of their sockets. This isn’t how she imagined it all to play out when she decided to write the first note. She thought she made it all fool-proof and that there would be no way for Ryujin to figure out it was from her. Well, technically it wasn’t Ryujin who figured it out, but her best friend just did so either way, she’s screwed. She isn’t ready to be Lara Jean 2.0.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! sorry for the slow and short updates :( i've been swamped with assignments (and still am) but i'll try my best to keep updating!


End file.
